The MTel Masters had kicked off! The double round-robin is an attraction for six of the world’s top players. Over the years it has been a venue for Veselin Topalov’s amazing performances. The players participating are: Topalov (Bulgaria), Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Bu Xiangzhi (China), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).

Ivanchuk!!
he is capable of doing this to anyone, the only problem is he is too unstable. i think black blundered with f3 and maybe should have inserted a6 at some point but it looked like his attack didnt need such moves. it looked like he was going to steam roll Ivanchuk
GREAT GAME

Going 4-0 is unheard of at this level. I believe Ivanchuk has been fortunate. His time pressure win over Topalov was fascinating as well. His time pressure issues actually make the games exciting. I will begin inserting the videos, but they are slow to load into the buffer.

Bu Xiangzhi has hit a rough patch in this tournament. He lost to Teimour Radjabov when the Chinese GM miss the strong 23.Bg4 followed by the shot 25.Bf6! Of course 25…Bf8 doesn’t work because Radjabov gives check 26.Qf6+ and after 26…Bg7, then plays 27.Qe7 when black will end up in zugzwang. He then tried to set up a fortress, but the Azeri GM marched his king all the way from g1-f2-e1-d2-c3-b4-a5-b6-c7-d7 in ten moves time. Radjabov broke the fortress with a nice zugzwang manuever (anyway). The consensus is that Bu made need a second to help him with his opening prep. He is 2700-level and any error will be punished as the Ivanchuk game showed.

Cheparinov resigns to Ivanchuk before being mated.
Photo by Europe-Echecs.com.

Vassily Ivanchuk closed out a fantastic showing at the MTel Masters with a nice win over Ivan Cheparinov. The game ended in a nice minor piece mate. The Ukranian superGM darted off to a 5-0 start and coasted to a 1-1/2 point victory and ended 8-2.

Ivanchuk’s score overshadowed Veslin Topalov’s perenniel strong showing at the MTel Master. Topalov put together a string of victories and ended on +3 which is usually good enough to vie for 1st place.

Teimour Radjabov had is second mediocre tournament in a row on +1 and Cheparinov was on -2. Both Bu Xiangzhi and Levon Aronian was miserable results, but Bu’s tournament was brightened by a win over Topalov. Aronian must certainly suffering from fatique.